Wakefield City Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 66 complaints. Of these, 19 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 37 complaints. We investigated 10 complaints.
More about this data
Complaints dealt with – the total number of complaints and enquiries considered. It is not appropriate to investigate all of them.
Not for us – includes complaints brought to us before the council was given chance to consider it, or the complainant came to the wrong Ombudsman.
Assessed and closed – includes complaints where the law says we’re not allowed to investigate, or it would be a poor use of public funds if we did.
Investigated – we completed an investigation and made a decision on whether we found fault, or no fault.
Complaints upheld – we completed an investigation and found evidence of fault, or the organisation provided a suitable remedy early on.
Satisfactory remedies provided by the Council – the council upheld the complaint and we agreed with how it offered to put things right.
Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations – not complying with our recommendations is rare. A council with a compliance rate below 100% should scrutinise the complaints where it failed to comply and identify any learning.
Average performance rates – we compare the annual statistics of similar types of councils to work out an average level of performance. We do this for County Councils, District Councils, Metropolitan Boroughs, Unitary Councils, and London Boroughs.
For more information on understanding our statistics see Interpreting our complaints data.
Complaints dealt with
Not for us
Assessed and closed
Investigated
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Complaints upheld
We investigated 10 complaints and upheld 6.
60% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 81% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Wakefield City Council's population, this is 1.7 upheld decisions per 100,000 residents.
The average for authorities of this type is
4.7 upheld decisions per 100,000 residents. -
Satisfactory remedies provided by the Council
In 0 out of 6 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
0% satisfactory remedy rate.
This compares to an average of 13% in similar authorities.
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Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations
We recorded compliance outcomes in 5 cases.
In 5 cases we were satisfied with the actions taken.100% compliance rate with recommendations.
This compares to an average of 100% in similar authorities.
Annual letters
We write to councils each year to give a summary of the complaint statistics we record about them,
and their performance in responding to our investigations.
Reports
The Ombudsman has published the following reports against Wakefield City Council
Find out more about reports
We issue reports on certain investigations, particularly where there is a wider public interest to do so. Common reasons for reports are significant injustice, systemic issues, major learning points and non-compliance with our recommendations. Issuing reports is one way we help to ensure councils are accountable to local people and highlighting the learning from complaints helps to improve services for everybody. Reports are published for 10 years.
No reports published
Service improvements
The Council has agreed to make the following improvements to its services following an Ombudsman investigation.
Find out more about service improvements
When we find fault, we can recommend improvements to systems and processes where they haven’t worked properly, so that others do not suffer from these same problems in future. Common examples are policy changes; procedural reviews; and staff training. Service improvements from decisions are published for 5 years and those from reports are published for 10 years.
The latest 10 cases are listed below – click ‘view all’ to find all service improvements.
Case reference: 23 014 342
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will review its policies and procedures relating to: checking the provision in EHC Plans is arranged and responding to reports of problems; annual reviews; and ending EHC Plans to ensure they comply with the legislation, regulations and government guidance.
Case reference: 22 016 894
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- the Council has agreed to provide details of the action it has taken to ensure suitability assessments of interim and temporary accommodation are properly recorded.
Case reference: 22 015 822
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- issue guidance to relevant staff reminding them of the need to issuerevised EHC plans within the statutory timescales
- review its systems for ensuring a child or young person is receiving the SEN provision in their EHC plan and taking action when it finds out provision is missing, whether that is through an annual review, complaint or otherwise. Where the Council finds areas for improvement, it will send the Ombudsman an action plan setting out the steps it will take and by when.
Case reference: 22 015 492
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Domiciliary care
- Issue written reminders to the care provider to ensure they are aware of:Regulation16 - This regulation is to ensure people can make a complaint about their careand treatment. To meet this regulation providers must have an effective and accessible system for identifying, receiving, handling and responding to complaints from people using the service, people acting on their behalf or other stakeholders. All complaints must be investigated thoroughly, and any necessary action taken where failures have been identified.Regulation17 which says care providers should “maintain securely” records and should have “an accurate, complete and contemporaneous record in respect of each service user, including a record of the care and treatment provided to the service user and of decisions taken in relation to the care and treatment provided”. Regulation10 says care providers must treat all service users with dignity and respect.
- Provide evidence of the action the care provider said it has taken in regard to:The breach of confidentiality which prompted communications to all care teams to include a refresher on its confidentiality policy.The moving and handling tasks that had been reviewed and had prompted further actions including additional observations and assessments from the office.
Case reference: 22 011 884
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- The Council will review the policy/mechanism it has in place for how schools inform it of the details of pupils who fail to attend school regularly, or have missed ten schools days or more, as outlined in the statutory guidance, to ensure it is receiving suitable information about children out of education from schools.
Case reference: 22 009 577
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Other
- The Council will arrange additional complaints awareness training for relevant staff
- The Council will remind staff of their statutory duty to fully co-oporate with statutory childrens complants investigations
- The Council will review its procedures for reaching best interests decisions to ensure it checks whether there is any Lasting Power of Attorney or deputyship in place and considers all other relevant factors before reaching a decision.
Case reference: 22 005 628
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council agreed to issue a memo to staff handling Education,Health and Care Plans reminding them that annual reviews need to be completed within 12 months of the previous review and this includes issuing the final Education,Health and Care Plan. The memo should also explain that this applies even when an amended Education,Health and Care Plan is issued following an appeal to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal.
Case reference: 21 014 095
Category: Environment and regulation
Sub Category: Refuse and recycling
- Produce an up-to-date waste collections policy to ensure this is readily available for staff and managers.
Case reference: 21 011 155
Category: Education
Sub Category: COVID-19
- The Council will remind all relevant officers of the need to consider the duty to provide alternative education for a child who is out of shcool for reasons other than exclusion or illness.
Case reference: 21 009 075
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council has agreed to review its process for people to request medical needs tuition, and ensure staff are aware not to request this to be done through CAMHS or other services.
- The Council has agreed to provide training and guidance to staff about the importance of correctly recording personal details in case notes and records. The Council should also review whether further training is required for staff to understand the importance of not misgendering or misnaming people.
Last updated: 4 April 2015